THE MUCH-AWAITED follow-up meeting between Indian captain Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and the Committee of Administrators (CoA) regarding a hike in the players’ contracts has had to be postponed after the BCCI employees failed to answer all of Vinod Rai’s queries posed to them on the matter. Rai, the CoA chief, had asked the employees following his first meeting, which had coach Ravi Shastri in attendance, to provide him with the exact pay structure and system that the BCCI has in place with regards to the players. However, it’s learnt that they couldn’t do so by December 6, which was when the second meeting was scheduled for.

The Indian Express has learnt that Rai had posed his queries on the back of Kohli and Dhoni having expressed their right to know exactly how the BCCI spends the money the board gets from their series sponsors and the team’s logo sponsors., that is, in addition to what they pay the players as per their annual contracts. They wanted to know whether the players are supposed to get the entire share or does sponsorship money get distributed among state associations as well.

The players weren’t given a clear picture of the BCCI’s payment model even during their first meeting either. The players are learnt to have been of the view that the BCCI doesn’t share sponsorship money with the state associations and all their earnings are distributed among the players.

But when asked for clarity on this, even many of the top BCCI employees are said to have been unsure.Sources in the BCCI also reveal that another reason for the postponement was that the figures presented during the last meeting by the board didn’t match with the facts. “For example, players were told that BCCI shares the sponsorship money with the state associations along with what they earn from the media rights, which is not the case. BCCI never shares the money which they get from Oppo, Paytm (Series Sponsors) with the state association. So now Rai has told them to make a complete chart and only then will he take it up with the players. At the same time, players were not told about the Indian board’s liabilities,” a source in the BCCI informed.

Royals to play in Pune?

Rajasthan Royals could well end up playing all their games in Pune during their comeback IPL season if the situation between BCCI and Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) doesn’t clear up. It was in fact decided at the IPL governing council meeting held in New Delhi to give Pune as the first choice to the Royals to host all their games.

However, Kings XI Punjab, who had requested the Indian board for moving their base out of Mohali, will have to play at least four games at their original home ground. The IPL GC cited the fact that Kings XI Punjab had originally bid for that particular city, and that it would be unfair to change their base now. However it’s learnt they will be allowed to play three league games in Indore or any other city in the 2018 IPL season.